As per the news reports, King County will dispatch layoff orders to around 255 employees. This job cut by King County is additional to the 150 job cuts already announced.
And the buck is not going to stop there. It is possible that more and more workers may lose their jobs next June if some of County Executive Ron Sims' other strategies for balancing the budget don't work. Sims, who announced the downsizing Monday in his annual budget address to the Metropolitan King County Council, said he didn't know exactly how many workers would receive pink slips today.
What is the financial condition of King County?
As per the news, Paring next year's general fund to $644 million, Sims said, meant cutting $93 million from what would have been needed to maintain current levels of government service.
As a result, fewer sheriff's deputies will be on the streets, courts will operate with smaller staffs, and Public Health — Seattle & King County will spend less on oral health, family planning and food safety.
The county budget office projects shortfalls of $40 million in 2010 and $62 million in 2011. Moments after his speech, Sims came under fire from the County Council's budget chairman and other elected officials who suggested his proposed budget doesn't balance spending and revenues. The council will adopt a 2009 budget next month.
Sims, calling the 2009 budget the most difficult he has ever prepared, said "critical county services are on life support" and may have to be curtailed in the middle of the year.
But his proposed budget would put off for at least six months what he called "unconscionable cuts to public health or immoral cuts to health services" — and elimination of the county's acclaimed drug and mental-health courts — through a combination of stopgap funding and a plea for outside help.
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